High speed electrostatographic copies and printers are extremely versatile and complex machines. They usually include interfaced accessories such as document input feeders, copy output sorters and staplers, and can have alternate document and copy sheet feet paths to handle input of 1-sided (simplex) and 2-sided (duplex) originals, and output 1 and 2-sided copies. The outputs can have various deliver locations and be finished (e.g., stapled or bound) in various formats. The output copies can be selected to have different sizes and the images formed thereon can be selectively varied in a large number of ways, e.g., as to copy density, magnification, color, image reversal, image position, image screening image erasing, etc.
To operate such an apparatus to perform a copying job, the user must make a large number of decisions about how these apparatus operating features will be set to perform that particular job, or default to nominal settings. Moreover, certain operating features of the apparatus can be used selectively on all or only certain ones of the pages of an output copy, e.g., to provide color on only certain pages, but margin erase on all pages.
It can be appreciated from the foregoing that job setup for high speed reprographic apparatus can be complex work that even skilled operators find time consuming and challenging. The jobs often involve producing many copy output sets and errors in job setup can be costly. To ease this situation, various touch-selection screen display devices have been developed to show apparatus mode and operating feature selection options in sequential screen displays, along with prompting instruction screens (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,531). As a further improvement for easing operator setup, the communication/control interface system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,222 separates the operator selection process, presented on the display screens of a reproduction apparatus control system, into three selection levels, a standard feature level, a special features-job level and a special features-page level. Within each selection level a series of screens can be sequentially addressed onto the display device to assist the operator in selections of operating features available at that level. An indica (e.g., a solid box) can be provided next to a selection(s) on the different level options screens to indicate an operating feature has been selected at that level. U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,549 discloses a display device that is addressable with a number of different operating feature selection screens, e.g., magnification, erase, simplex-duplex, and provides a written message on such selection screens, informing the operator what has been selected.
The process for selecting modes and operating features is improved by techniques such as described in the prior art above; however, it is still quite a burdensome task for the operator to keep track of all of the selections made, e.g., to confirm setup correctness before starting to copy, or to assure compatibility of feature selections at various stages of the selection procedure. Also, it would be highly useful in systems that store job setups for reruns, to be able to quickly and easily confirm that the large number of saved operating features selections are the desired ones.